Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, four of 10 respondents to a pre-poll survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Lokniti said they are favouring the Bharatiya Janata Party, giving a 12-point lead to the National Democratic Alliance over the Opposition INDIA bloc.

The survey was conducted between March 28 and April 8 across 19 states and showed that 21% of respondents said they would vote for the Congress “if the elections were held today”. A total of 13% of respondents said they favoured allies of the Congress and six percent said they favour the BJP’s allies.

The survey also highlighted that Narendra Modi continues to be a popular choice for the prime ministerial post with 48% of respondents saying they would prefer him for the role. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was in the second spot with 27% saying they favoured him.

However, only 23% of the respondents said they had trust in Modi’s guarantees. The number was 17% for Gandhi.

The survey also revealed mixed sentiments on the performance of the BJP-led Central government, with only 23% of the respondents saying they were fully satisfied.

Livelihood-related issues, unemployment and inflation are causing dissatisfaction among voters, the survey said.

The population of voters being satisfied with the Central government has dropped by a few percentage points compared to the 2019 pre-poll survey. In the run-up to the 2019 polls, 65% said they were “somewhat” or “fully” satisfied with the government. In 2024, the percentage of such people has come down to 57%.

The share of those “somewhat” or “fully” dissatisfied has increased from 30% in 2019 to 39%, according to the survey. The southern regions of the country continue to be more dissatisfied with the present government at the Centre compared to the north and the west.

The respondents cited unemployment, price rises, and falling income as the reasons for not giving the BJP government another chance. Those who chose the option of giving them another chance cited “good work”, welfare schemes and “Modi is a great leader” as the factors behind their choice.

Many people who took part in the survey chose “Ayodhya Ram Mandir” as this government’s “most admired work”, reported The Hindu.